1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording medium cartridge that is mainly used as a recording and playback medium for computers and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Magnetic tape cartridges including a case within which is housed a single reel wound with magnetic tape that is mainly used as a recording and playback medium for computers and the like have conventionally been known. A leader member, such as a leader block, a leader pin, or a leader tape, is disposed at a leading end of the magnetic tape. A pull-out mechanism disposed at a drive device pulls out the leader member from the magnetic tape cartridge and winds the magnetic tape fixed to the leader member around a take-up reel of the drive device.
A reel gear is annularly disposed in a center of a lower surface of the reel, which is exposed through an open hole that penetrates a lower surface of the magnetic tape cartridge. The reel is rotatingly driven by a drive gear disposed at a rotating shaft of the drive device meshing with the reel gear. Data is recorded on the magnetic tape, and data recorded on the magnetic tape is played back, by synchronously rotating the reel of the magnetic tape cartridge and the take-up reel of the drive device.
Such magnetic tape cartridges are ordinarily housed in a storage called a library. Rear end sides of both side walls of a desired magnetic tape cartridge are gripped by a gripping mechanism including a robotic hand or the like, whereby the magnetic tape cartridge is extracted from a storage unit of the library. By loading the extracted magnetic tape cartridge into one of several drive devices, data is recorded in the magnetic tape cartridge or data that is recorded in the magnetic tape cartridge is played back.
A card-type memory board, in which is recorded various information such as the recording format and recording capacity of the magnetic tape cartridge, is disposed at an inner side within a rear wall of each magnetic tape cartridge, so that the magnetic tape cartridge extracted from the library is smoothly loaded into one drive device. In other words, the various information recorded in the memory board is read by a reading and writing device disposed at the drive device and by a reading device disposed at the robotic hand, and a drive device that can record data in the magnetic tape cartridge or play back data recorded in the magnetic tape cartridge is identified in advance by a control device or the like, so that there is no loss in the action of the gripping mechanism such as the robotic hand.
In FIG. 9 is illustrated a conventional magnetic tape cartridge 120. Arrow P in the drawing indicates the direction in which the magnetic tape cartridge 120 is loaded into the drive device. As shown in FIG. 9, a memory board 124 is disposed with an orientation so as to slant at a predetermined angle at an inner side of a rear wall 122D (the wall facing the direction of arrow P is a front wall 122A) of the magnetic tape cartridge 120. That is, because the robotic hand is a structure that grips the rear end sides of left and right side walls 122B and 122C of the magnetic tape cartridge 120, a reading device 108 is structured to access the memory board 124 from a rear surface of the magnetic tape cartridge 120, i.e., from the rear wall 122D. Because the magnetic tape cartridge 120 that has been loaded into the drive device has a structure in which it is completed loaded into the drive device by the lowering of a bucket (e.g., refer to 102 in FIG. 8), a reading and writing device 106 is structured to access the memory board 124 from a lower surface 121 of the magnetic tape cartridge 124.
Accordingly, the memory board 124 is disposed at an wave angle of 45° when seen in side view so that it can be accessed from both the rear wall 122D and the lower surface 121 (i.e., from two directions). When the memory board 124 is disposed with this orientation, it is possible for the memory board 124 to be accessed by an electromagnetic wave that is transmitted and received from the reading device 108, which is disposed at the rear wall 122D, and it is possible for the memory board 124 to be accessed by an electromagnetic wave that is transmitted and received from the reading and writing device 106, which is disposed at the lower surface 121. It should be noted that the reading and writing device 106 is a device that can not only read information but can also write information.
However, when the design of the library or the drive device is altered and the reading device 108 or the reading and writing device 106 is of a specification that can only access the memory board 124 from the left or right side surfaces (left wall 122B or right wall 122C) in the direction in which the magnetic tape cartridge 120 is loaded into the drive device (i.e., the direction of arrow P), problems occur in that the memory board 124 cannot be accessed in the above-described configuration.